ALLEN: MAMMALS OF THE PHILLIPS PALESTINE EXPEDITION. 11 



Apodemus mystacinus euxinus, suhsp. nov. 

 Black Sea Wood Mouse. 



T\jpc.— Skin and skull 14,887 M. C. Z., from Scalita (near Trebi- 

 zond), Asia Minor; male, collected November 25, 1905, by A. Robert, 

 altitude 1,000 meters. 



General Characters. — Similar to typical mystacinua but much darker, 

 the back blacker, the buffy tints of face and sides replaced by grayish. 



Description. — The type specimen is subadult, and in coniparison 

 with specimens of similar age from Palestine, is much darker through- 

 out. The entire dorsal surfaces are grayish, heavily washed with 

 black which predominates in the middle of the back. The sides of 

 the head and body are paler gray very faintly washed with " pinkish- 

 buff" but in much less degree than in the typical race so that the 

 general appearance is dark gray. Along the sides of the body a faint 

 band of 'pinkish buff' delimits the color of the dorsal surface from the 

 white of the belly. The slaty bases of the hairs of the ventral surface 

 show through sufficiently to darken the entire imderparts except on 

 the forearms, which are pure white below. Feet and hands white, 

 ankles slaty, with a dusky prolongation reaching the calcaneum 

 behind, though the tarsal joint is white on its upper surface. Tail 

 sharply bicolor, blackish above, white below. 



Measurements. — Head and body 94 mm., tail 109, hind foot 24, 

 ear 18. The skull shows no appreciable differences from that of 

 typical mystacinus; condylobasal length 26, palatal length 14, zygo- 

 matic width 14, upper cheek teeth (alveoli) 4.5. 



Remarks. — Mr. Thomas has already described several new forms 

 of mammals from the forest belt along the northern coast of Asia 

 Minor on the Black Sea. Here, he sa^s, " there is a strip of forest, 

 some 50 miles wide, sloping northwards to the Black Sea from an 

 altitude of 1500 to 2000 metres at its southern edge. The forest then 

 abruptly disappears and an open steppe country commences, inhabited 

 by Hamsters and Spermophiles, and continuous with the more desert 

 countries further south. Compared with this more open and desert 

 country the coast-forest has a very different fauna, of a distinctly 

 northern character. * * * Mr. Robert's work was done at two localities 

 in the heart of the forest-strip — Sumela * * * and Scalita * * * a 

 village in the same valley as Sumela but about 3000 m. [ = 300 m.?] 

 lower," and some 30 or more miles south of Trebizond (Ann. mag. nat. 

 hist., 1906, ser. 7, 17, p. 415). 



